[Sidenote: =Fleabane=
_Erígeron Bréweri_
=Purple
Summer
California=]
This is rather pretty, with slender, brittle, downy stems, from six to
eighteen inches tall, and small, narrow, rough, dull green leaves. The
flowers grow singly, at the ends of short leafy branches, and are each
less than an inch across, with rather few violet or pinkish-purple rays
and a yellow center. This is common around Yosemite and looks a good
deal like an Aster.
[Sidenote: =Whip-lash Fleabane=
_Erígeron flagellàris_
=White, pink
Summer
Ariz., Utah, etc.=]
A rather odd-looking plant, with numerous, very slender, weak,
branching stems, trailing on the ground, and very small, toothless,
grayish-green, downy leaves, forming a rather dense, low bush, about
two and a half feet across, the long sprays interlacing and dotted
here and there with pretty little flowers, with numerous fine, white,
pink-tipped rays and a yellow center. The sprays often take root at
the tip. This grows in the Grand Canyon, and is found as far east as
Colorado.
[Sidenote: =Rayless Fleabane=
_Erígeron concínnus var. aphanáctis_
=Yellow
Spring
Utah, Nev., Cal. etc.=]
A rather attractive little plant, forming small clumps, about five
inches high, with several very hairy stems and light dull green, very
hairy leaves. The many flower-heads are less than half an inch across,
deep yellow, without rays. This grows on dry plains and mesas, as far
east as Colorado, and has a rather starved appearance.
[Sidenote: =Spreading Fleabane=
_Erígeron divérgens_
=Violet
Spring, summer, autumn
West, etc.=]
A dear little common plant, from six to fifteen inches high, with
several slender, branching, hairy stems, and soft, hairy, gray-green
leaves, the upper ones small and narrow, without leaf-stalks and the
lower ones sometimes with two or three lobes and with leaf-stalks. The
flower-heads, several or many, on slender flower-stalks, measure nearly
an inch across in spring, but are smaller in summer, and have numerous
very narrow rays, white towards the center, shading to bright violet
or pink at the tips, with a bright yellow center. This often grows in
quantities on dry plains and mountain-sides, as far east as Texas, and
is quite charming, the tufts of foliage, dotted with pretty delicate
little flowers, not touching each other, but sprinkled over a large
space, recalling the little flowers in early Italian pictures. _E.
pùmilis_, of the Northwest and Utah, is much the same, with white rays.
[Illustration: Spreading Fleabane--E. divergens.
E Breweri.
Whip-lash Fleabane--Erigeron flagellaris.